Walk Away
by Jtoasn
Summary: It hadn't been easy to walk away from being Harry Potter, but he had done it. James alive. Complete. Rewritten.
1. Chapter 1

This is a rewrite of the fiction once called 'Potter meets Turner', I rewrote it because it was honestly one of the worst things I had ever read. So here is the rewrite, it's a bit odd in the ending - I suck at endings. But I do hope it's a far cry better than what it was before.

I

James Potter placed the plate of food in front of his son, who only looked at it slightly before moving onto his book.

"You have to eat something."

"I'm not hungry."

It had been like this for the past week and James was running out of ideas to please his son. He sat down across from him and let out a deep sigh, taking the book from John who rolled his eyes.

"John, I told you about my past so that we can overcome it, I didn't mean to keep it from you for so long."

"But dad you did, alright?" John replied back, "I mean, one day I'm your average homeschooled wizard and the next I have a brother I don't know about and an evil dark lord that killed my mother."

"I know it's a bit overwhelming..."

"A _bit _overwhelming?" he exclaimed, "Dad, the boys missing and he has been for almost two years now. It's the entire wizarding world that's looking for him and he hasn't been found."

James ran his hand through his now greying hair, "I don't know where he's gone... or why."

"Maybe he found out about his dad," James said, "He found out that his dad's been alive all this time and been too scared to go back and face the music. I'm going to my room."

James watched as his younger son walked out of the house. He had only been a couple months old when Voldemort had attacked the house; he had taken him to a neighbours place and as soon as James had woken to find Harry gone and Lily dead. He had taken John and run away to America.

He had wanted to start afresh.

But the past just kept on chasing after him.

It had only been a week that James had found out that Harry was still alive, and not only that but that he had grown up and faced Voldemort more times than he possibly could have imagined. But now Harry was missing, well he had been missing for two years or so.

But the thing that angered him more than anything was that maybe John was right.

He had abandoned Harry when he was only a baby, and left him with the worst type of muggles that he could ever have imagined. Lily's sister and that troll she calls a husband. He had promised Lily the day that Harry was born to always protect him, always watch over him... and at the first obstacle all James could do was run.

But not anymore.

"John, pack your bags."

"Are we going somewhere?"

"Your right John," James said, "I shouldn't run from my past, and neither should you. We're going back to England. We're going to find your brother. And we're going to put an end to this."

"But-"

"Go pack now!"

II

"There is still no sign of him anywhere." Tonks said to Remus, as he continued to look over the sheets of paper that were mounted around and on his desk, "Remus, this is getting a bit unhealthy."

"We're close, I know we are."

"Remus, it's been a year since the ministry have already called off their investigation and the Prime Minister refuses to help. It's just us looking for him, and it's not enough."

"Well excuse me if I haven't given up looking for him." Remus said, "Look, he's just a boy –"

"He'd be 18 now."

"It doesn't matter!" Remus exclaimed loudly, papers flying off of his desk, "We can't give up on him."

"If he doesn't want to be found, then we can't force him out into the open." Tonks said, standing her ground, "He's not a boy anymore, let him live his life and let him do it alone."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

Remus remained silent and continued to riffle through the papers; Tonks knew that she would get no more out of him. "At least take your wolfsbane, it's nearly the full moon."

He waited until she left before letting himself lean back into the chair, if Sirius was here it would be so much more easier. He would just give him some of Harry's scent and he would have him in less than a week. But he wasn't here, and neither was Wormtail or Prongs – they were all gone, and Remus was the only one left to pick up the pieces.

Scrunching up his eyes he returned to the papers.

There had to be some clue that would lead them to Harry Potter.


	2. chapter 2

III

Harry walked down the street. It was just a street in London, no different from any other one, except that this was the street that Harry Potter had worked at for almost a month.

It was only two streets from the Leaky Cauldron.

Sometimes he walked down the street and worried that someone was about to recognise him, but every day passed and no one did. He wondered if he was just lucky, or if they had finally stopped looking for him.

"You're late."

Harry ignored the comment of the head of security and went to the elevators. Stepping inside he made his way to the bottom floor where he had managed to hold down a job which he wasn't qualified for and wasn't even sure what he was meant to be doing.

"The phone is ringing."

"Yeah, I know."

Harry sighed and walked to his desk, sitting down he rubbed the bridge of his nose before he began to type. He soon heard the clacking of heels against the linoleum floor.

"Morning Susan."

"My god Mark you look horrible, haven't you been sleeping?"

"Not too well."

"You should go to the nurse, I'm sure they have pills for that or something."

Harry shrugged, "I'm okay."

"No, it's not actually because well I'm having a dinner party and one of my girlfriends is sort of single, so I thought ..."

"No."

"... well you're single as well... "

"No."

"... do you see the connection?"

"Yes and I'm n-"

"Excellent, it starts at 7 so be there just a bit before then, alright."

Susan walked away and Harry felt the stare of his friend, "How could you have gotten invited to a dinner party already? You've only been here a month and you're already in with her, I've been here _two years_."

"Believe me Mick I'm not very happy about it. Oh here she comes."

"Oh Mark, can you bring some wine as well."

"Er..."

"Red wine, that'll be fine. Oh hello Mick."

"Susan, do you think I could get a plus one invitation to the dinner party as well."

"Oh no, no, no. The last time I invited you to a dinner party you scared all my friends and they thought that they had viruses."

"Computer viruses are a very serious problem and a danger to not only their computers but to entire building systems."

"Yes, but they thought it was a real virus Mick, not a computer one."

Harry held his head in his hands, he was tired and he had been for the last couple of days. He had been having nightmares again, not only of the last fight he had with Voldemort, but dreams of his mother and Sirius.

"Memory IS RAM."

"I don't care Mick, just don't bring up anything about computers tonight, okay?" Susan said, "Oh Mark you don't look well at all, maybe you should go home."

"No, I'm fine."

"Mate I think you should go home, you look like you're about to keel over."

Perhaps Harry was too sleep deprived to argue with them, so instead he agreed and decided to go home and rest for a bit. As he walked home he stepped into the pharmacy and picked up another packed of hair dye. His roots were starting to turn a little black and it was looking a bit odd contrasting the blonde that he had become accustomed to seeing.

Finding his way to his apartment he stopped momentarily to go to his neighbour's house, his neighbour was a squib but was now very old and a bit senile. She still gets the daily prophet every day and throws them all in a bin at the end of the week. For most muggles the daily prophet appears as just a normal newspaper, with muggle news on it. But Harry would take them to his apartment and read up on the world that he had left behind.

He was halfway through the apartment, determined to get some sleep when a new headline hit his brain and made the shock in his heart.

'James Potter Alive!'

IV

Remus set the tea down in front of his old (but not dead) friend, his hands trembled slightly.

"Moony, it's alright."

"I just... I don't understand. How?"

"He didn't kill me, and he didn't know about John... I mean you barely knew about him."

"I know but, it's been 18 years, didn't you think about what happened that night? About what happened to Sirius or me? He went to Azkaban you know, all those years could have been prevented if you had just stayed."

"Don't you think I regret that now?" James replied angrily, "I regret not being here. I wasn't here for him, and I didn't help Sirius and I left you to deal with all of this. You were my family. But my _real_ family was killed, I just... I couldn't take it anymore."

"Johns grown up." Remus said, "Lily would have been proud."

"She would have been proud of both of them." James said and he sat down quickly, "Tell me about Harry, tell me what happened that made him run away."

Remus ran a hand through his hair, "Where do I start?"

"Please try."

"Well when Harry left he sort of left something for us, it was a pevensie and it's filled with memories of his life. I guess he knew that he was going to be leaving so he thought he might leave the pevensie as some sort of explanation. But it only makes me more worried..."

"Can I see it?"

"I want to see it as well." A voice said from the other side of the room, the two marauders looked at John who stood by the staircase looking at the two.

"John, I thought you were sleeping."

"Please Mr. Lupin; I want to see his memories as well. He's my big brother and I want to know what his life has been like. I want to know what made him run away from the wizarding world."

"I have to tell you that some of the memories aren't very nice."

"I don't care. He's my son... he's _our _family."

"And besides, with all the reporters outside, it'll help to be just a little bit prepared for what's to come."

Remus sighed and took out the bowl; he had been searching through those memories almost nightly to find something that would give him a clue to where Harry could be. Now the two remaining Potters stood by the edge of the table, and dived into the memories.

The werewolf let out a sigh.


	3. Chapter 3

V

Harry walked down the street, his head buzzing from the amount of drinks that he had consumed that night. It wasn't unusual for Harry to drink, but at the dinner party there was so much wine and he didn't need an excuse to drink just a little bit more.

He was thinking of his father.

And his brother!

A brother that he didn't even know existed until they had reported it in the Daily Prophet. His head told him that he shouldn't believe everything that he read in that newspaper, but his heart was telling him that it was true.

He had so many questions, and yet couldn't bring himself to ask them anything.

If he went to them he would have to give up this life forever, this normal existence that he had built for himself. His normal friends and normal dinner parties.

Maybe this was all an elaborate trap.

What if his dad and his brother didn't exist at all and this was just a ruse to bring him out of the darkness. He closed his eyes and shook his head, 'no' he told himself. He won't be lured out.

What would he say to them anyway?

'Where have you been all this time?' would be the first thing to come to mind, and it would be followed by 'Why did you come back?'

It was pointless to think of what could and what wouldn't be.

He was happy where he was, and he knew that everyone else was going on with their lives. Ron and Hermione had gotten married and she was teaching at Hogwarts, Ron was working for the ministry. And even though Harry was working at a job where he had no idea what he was doing, he was happy doing it.

His life was pretty much exactly where he wanted it to be.

"Hey! Watch out!"

The last thing Harry knew was that there was a blinding white light coming straight towards him, screaming and the screeching of tyres on the pavement.

"Someone call an ambulance!"

VI

"We'll have to wait until he wakes up to see if he'll press charges."

James looked at the body of the young man with unease, "Will he be alright though?"

"We don't know we'll have to wait until he wakes up and when we get the results back. Your son however is fine; he'll be discharged tomorrow at the latest."

"Thank you."

Remus looked at James who shrugged, "We have to wait."

"This isn't going to look good on the front of the Daily Prophet, 'John Potter hits muggle!'" Tonks said, as she looked between the two of them, "I'll try and do some damage control with Hermione but besides that there's not much I can do."

"Thanks Tonks."

James sat down on the chair beside the bed of John; he was sleeping at the moment but James stared at the heart monitor just to make sure that there was still a heartbeat.

"He'll be fine James; you heard what the doctor said."

"I know it's just... for a split second I thought – I thought I was going to lose him. I've already lost Lily and Harry, what would I do if I lost John as well? He's all I've got left." He shook his head, "I shouldn't have let him see Harry's memories."

"You didn't know he was going to storm off like that James. If anything it's _my_ fault. I should have known it would be too much for him to handle"

"But that's just it!" James exclaimed, "How could he have lived like that? How could anybody live like that? His life was hell and... it could all have been so different, if only I was... I only I hadn't left."

"We can't change the past James."

"We're wizards, you would think by now we'd have figured out a way to do it."

They both watched John sleeping before hearing a rustling of sheets and a groan from the other side of the room. Suddenly there was a doctor and a nurse walking to the other end.

"Ah, you're awake. You didn't have any identification with you; do you know who you are?"

Remus leaned across the curtain and watched the young man's face contort as he tried to remember, but he shook his head. "No."

"Hmm."

The doctor leaned in and checked on the boy's eyes and head, "I think you might have a mild case of amnesia, I'm afraid we'll have to keep you here for observation."

"I... I think I've got work tomorrow."

"Son, if you don't know who you are, I doubt you will be going to work tomorrow."

Remus still remained transfixed at the young man's appearance; there was something about him that he just couldn't place. He was sure he had never met the boy before, but there was something in his eyes.

Something so familiar.


	4. Chapter 4

VII

He saw the man looking at him, and he turned his head slightly to meet his gaze. The doctor turned around as he followed his gaze and the nurse quickly closed the curtain.

"Now the police will be in here soon to discuss the accident, the boy in question is next door and is concussed but stable. It is up to you whether or not to press charges against the boy."

"Well I suppose I did have a bit to drink tonight, so it might not have been his entire fault."

"How do you know you've had a drink tonight?"

"I'm pretty sure this blinder isn't coming from outer space."

The doctor smiled, "Well the police will be in here shortly, if you start to remember anything like your name or where you live, next of kin then be sure to inform him."

He nodded.

It was a few moments after the police had left that he became curious enough to reach for the curtain that separated his bed to the rest of the ward. He spotted the man that he had seen watching him before, there was a bed – the driver he assumed.

"Hello?"

"Hello" the man began, "How are you feeling?"

"Like I've been hit by a car."

"Look my son didn't do it on purpose." This voice belonged to another man, and when he first saw him he was positive he had met him before, or if not he knew who he was. But he kept that to himself, he didn't want them to think he was a nut job or anything.

"I'm not pressing charges just so you know." He told them.

"Why not?"

"He's just a kid right? I mean, the policeman said he's only 17... I'm only 18."

"I'm Remus and this is James" Remus said, and then he looked at the boy curiously, "What's your name?"

"I don't know yet." He said, "I have to stay overnight and probably for as long as it takes for me to remember where I live and where I work and stuff."

"So you're staying here?"

He nodded, "But it was nice meeting you anyway, I hope this doesn't deter your son from driving in the future."

Closing the curtain again, he fell down against the fluffy white pillows of the hospital bed. In the back of his mind he was being told that this wasn't an unfamiliar situation. Perhaps he was very accident prone and he ended up in a hospital bed quiet often. But the morphine was beginning to take effect and so he let himself drift into a dreamless sleep.

VIII

Remus stared at the curtain even after the boy had closed it, James looked at Remus oddly. "You alright Moony?"

"There's something about that kid..."

"Are your werewolf senses tingling?"

Remus couldn't help but grin as he heard James say that, he used to say that all the time when they were at school and Remus had bad feelings about something.

"I have to admit that yes, my werewolf senses _are _tingling."

"Well he's not pressing charges, and he doesn't look like the type of kid that just goes to bars and gets wasted." James said, "He's probably a good kid, I hope they find his family."

Remus continued to look at the closed curtain.

"Maybe we should ask them if he can come with us."

"What do you mean?"

"There's something about him James, I can't put my finger on it. I know if we just have a bit more time I'd figure it out. Can't we ask the hospital if we can take care of him until his memory returns?"

James ran a hand through his hair, "He does seem familiar, but don't you think it'll be a bit strange. I mean the guy was nearly killed by John, and now we're just offering him a place to stay until he regains his memory."

"Dad?"

James eyes shot to his son who lay on the bed, he looked at him through sleepy eyes, "What happened?"

"You were in a bit of an accident, you nearly ran someone over – but don't worry! He won't be pressing charges; it's just a sprained ankle and a bit of amnesia."

"Oh well that's nothing to worry about is it?" John said, before looking sincere, "I'm sorry I ran off, I don't know what I was thinking... it's just Harry's so different."

James could only agree with his son.

"You're awake as well; well I think you'll be fit to leave tomorrow in the morning if you want. I'm afraid you'll have to stay overnight and I'm sorry but visiting hours are over." The nurse said to Remus and James who nodded.

James patted John's leg, "We'll see you in the morning."

John nodded and lay back on the bed thinking about his long-lost brother. He had lived a life so different from the one he had, and seeing those memories. He thought about the guy he had almost killed, he had amnesia... he sort of wished it had been _him_. No one should really have to go remember such horrible memories.


	5. Chapter 5

**Re-written, please re-read the other chapters.**

IX

He woke up suddenly and he realised in a cold sweat.

Earlier he had slept and he had a pretty dreamless sleep. He had woken and had spoken to the doctors and the nurses about what Remus had offered – a place to stay.

He had attempted to sleep again but then all of a sudden there was a dream – no it wasn't a dream, it was a memory. There were snakes and flying motorcycles and a man... a man that was a snake and who was trying to kill him.

A name floated up amidst the chaos of that dream.

Voldemort.

Harry lay on the bed staring at the milky white ceiling. He knew who he was now, who he was and what that meant. But another realisation began at that same moment. The men that were in the room earlier, the one that hit him with the car... it was Remus.

And... and his father.

Sitting up in his bed he managed to get off the bed and change quickly into his clothes before he hesitantly hobble over to the bed in which his little brother lay sleeping. Here in this bed lay the truth, his brother and his father.

It hadn't been easy to walk away from being Harry Potter, but he had done it.

And now, when he was faced with a choice of whether to walk away from being Mark Saint, a London IT worker, and going back to a place where he had a father and a brother, where he could have a real chance of being in a family. It should be easy, but if anything it was harder. They would find out sooner or later, they did have his files at this hospital from when Vernon had reluctantly taken Harry to have his arm moulded when he broke his arm years ago.

They would find out that he was Harry Potter.

But the decision was Harry's.

Suddenly the boy stirred and he looked up at Harry in shock, "Who are you?"

"Uh... Mark, Mark Saint. You nearly ran me over yesterday."

He looked uncomfortable, John that is. But Harry was far from calm. This was his little brother! He didn't even know he existed two days ago and now they were talking.

"What do you want?"

"I just wanted to tell you that... I'm going to be discharged because my memories back and I'll... just thank your dad and Moony for me, for offering a place to stay."

"They what?"

"Oh they offered me a place to stay till my memory came back – at least that's what the nurse said." Harry said, he nodded at John and held out his hand. John took it and they shook hands. "It was really nice to meet you John, it really was."

And with that Harry left.

X

"He's gone? What do you mean he's gone?" Remus asked as John ate the breakfast the hospital had given him.

"He left last night, apparently his memory came back and so they discharged him."

"That's a bit odd."

"You didn't tell me you offered him a place to stay Moony." John said through a mouthful of scrambled eggs, "He said thanks but no thanks."

"Oh it was just an idea he had" James said looking over at Lupin, "What? What's wrong?"

"You said Moony." Lupin said, "You called me Moony, why? Did you hear your dad call me that?"

"No... um... I think Mark said it, it actually suits you."

James and Lupin looked at each other.

"It couldn't possibly be..."

"Mark where the hell have you been?" Susan's voice said as he hobbled through the door, "My goodness what happened to your foot?"

"My little brother tried to run me over."

"Yeah right, you don't have a brother; you're probably just saying that because you got a blinder yesterday and you didn't come into work because of it." Mick said as he continued typing on the computer.

Harry looked at the two.

The choice he had made.

"Yeah, it was a good dinner party." He said before sitting down and having a normal day, in his normal life.

Years later he would find out that his brother had stepped up and taken care of Voldemort, but by that time Harry had gotten himself a girlfriend and a normal mortgage.

He walked up the footpath and knocked on the door waiting only a few moments before the door opened.

"Yes?"

The man froze when he saw him and Harry nodded at his father. "Hello, dad."

**END**


End file.
